Spotlight & Giveaway: Paws and Prejudice by Alanna Martin

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Alanna Martin to HJ!

Hi Alanna and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Paws and Prejudice!

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

There’s something extremely cliché about a writer making one of their main characters a writer. I fully admit to it, and yet making Kelsey a romance writer just fit her character too well to not do it. Everyone who reads and writes romance is aware of the stereotypes around those activities, and here was a character who already felt like she had to keep so much about herself hidden as a form of self-protection. Adding a career to the list of secrets Kelsey keeps made perfect sense, especially since that career was in direct opposition to the kind of reputation she cultivates—the hard-ass, takes-no-prisoners warrior who you do not want to mess with. Of course, we all know romance-writing-and-reading-women can definitely be those things. But I’ll never get tired of pointing out how ridiculous and inaccurate the stereotypes about the romance community are.

In fact, one of the things I loved about making Kelsey a romance writer was that she gave me an outlet to talk about what romance is and what it can do for people. All the reasons why I love the genre. Without getting spoilery, Kelsey turns to reading and then writing romance to help her deal with a traumatic event in her life. She specifically calls out what she learned about sex and relationships—and about herself—from those books. That’s one of the things I love the most about romance, and why I think it’s such an important genre for women and men. Even if the depictions of sex aren’t always the most realistic, romance reminds women that their feelings and needs and desires matter. It makes their feelings the subject of the story, and their bodies more than just the object to be obtained in a man’s story.

For me, I turned to reading (and eventually writing) romance during a very different sort of traumatic time—when I was going through cancer treatment. I needed uplifting stories. Stories where everyone got what they deserved in the end, and where that happily ever after was guaranteed. Romance delivers on that like no other genre and having those books available to me was so beneficial for my mental health. Possibly this is why no stereotype about romance annoys me more than the genre being dismissed as meaningless fluff. First of all, it’s not true. But secondly, even if it was, so what? Fluff matters. Fluff does important work. Anyone who claims they don’t need a soft place to land mentally every now and then is lying. Yes, romance can deliver fluff, and I’m thankful for it.

Like Kelsey, I don’t talk much about writing in everyday life. And also, like her, it took me a while to reach the point where, when I do talk about it, I don’t shy away from owning my genre proudly. Still, there are people in my life who look at me askance when I do, and that’s too bad for them. I’m so glad for this genre and thrilled to have gotten to write a main character whose very existence is something of a love letter to it.
 

Please share the opening lines of this book:

Kelsey Porter had always feared the lies she told would one day come back to bite her in the ass. She’d just never expected the bite would come in the form of work she had no business doing for a man she wanted nothing to do with. But lies were cruel. They built on themselves—
words turning into sentences and sentences into paragraphs, until Kelsey had written a novel of falsehoods about who she was and what she did for a living.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• The original title was Four Dog Autumn, which is admittedly a pretty boring title. Paws and Prejudice came to me about three chapters into writing it, and it just fit perfectly, especially since Kelsey is a huge Jane Austen fan.
• Ian’s fear of dogs is based on my own experiences. We were both jumped on by a large dog when we were still tiny. Although my phobia disappeared on its own when I was in college.
• I had cravings for all my favorite foods while writing because of the baking talk! Challah, bagels, kugel, rugelach… My characters have a tendency to eat and drink everything I want.

Please tell us a little about the characters in your book. As you wrote your protagonist was there anything about them that surprised you?

Kelsey had such a strong voice in my head that she kind of took over her scenes in the first book in this series (Heart on a Leash) where she was a supporting character. So, it was a lot of fun to give her a starring role. Like so many people, Kelsey prefers dogs to humans, and she judges others by how they react to her own dogs. She’s acerbic, but she uses her sharp tongue to keep people at bay because she’s been hurt in the past. And beneath her snark, she’s very protective of the people she cares about. Part of her mean girl act is just that—an act she uses to direct attention to herself and off of the people she’s trying to protect.

Ian’s fear of dogs is just one of many reasons he and Kelsey don’t get along at first. He surprised me because I initially thought he was going to be the quiet type who liked to keep his head down and just do his job, but from their first interaction, he refused to put up with Kelsey’s snark. That made their dynamic a lot more fun to write. Ian would return all of Kelsey’s verbal attacks, and that was something Kelsey had to respect even though he irritated her so much.

If your book was optioned for a movie, what scene would you use for the audition of the main characters and why?

I think the scene where Kelsey and Ian first meet and are sizing each other up would be a lot of fun! Their meet cute is more like a meet hate, and it sets the tone for the rest of their interactions.

Since he didn’t feel like lying and pretending no offense had been taken, Ian didn’t bother to fake a smile. Small talk was over, if it had ever begun. He had to get Kelsey out of here so he could get back to work. Neither she nor the SHS was going to get in his way. “So what do I need to do for you? Besides get out of town, that is?”

Kelsey raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t suggest it.”

“Your pin did the talking.”

“You sound defensive.”

“When one side goes on the offensive, being defensive is smart.”

Kelsey’s face lit up in an expression that Ian might have considered cute under other circumstances. “You know, usually I have to open my mouth before people call me offensive. What a good little pin this is.” She stroked it. “I’ve leveled up if I can hurt someone’s feelings without saying a word.”

Ian grabbed one of the screws sitting on his makeshift plywood table and spun it around to keep his hands busy. It was either that or start futzing with the drill, and that seemed kind of violent. “I don’t recall suggesting my feelings were hurt. I promise you, they’re not. The brewery is open for business, even if the tasting room isn’t completed and the website is unfinished. I feel very good about that, actually, and we’re not going anywhere.”

What do you want people to take away from reading this book?

The same thing I want people to take away from all my books—a happy distraction from whatever stress they’re dealing with in real life! But beyond that, I hope the story is a good reminder that everyone is dealing secret (or not-so-secret) stress, and that the impressions we get of people don’t tell the whole story of their lives.

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have planned?

I’m currently working a secret project, so nothing I can share yet. But Love and Let Bark, the next book in the Hearts of Alaska series, releases in November. It’s a second chance romance with a hot firefighter and two husky puppies.

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: One print copy of PAWS AND PREJUDICE for a U.S. only winner.

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: Are you a dog person, a cat person, or something else altogether?

 
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Excerpt from Paws and Prejudice:

Kelsey Porter had always feared that the lies she told would one day come back to bite her in the ass. She’d just never expected the bite would come in the form of work she had no business doing for a man she wanted nothing to do with. But lies were cruel. They built on themselves-words turning into sentences and sentences into paragraphs, until Kelsey had written a novel of falsehoods about who she was and what she did for a living. So when her father volunteered her labor to Ian Roth, Kelsey was triply screwed.
One, she wasn’t about to confess that her alleged work experience was a lie.
Two, she was already extremely busy.
Three, and perhaps most important, Ian was a jerk who didn’t deserve what little free time she had.
Despite never having spoken to Ian, Kelsey was absolutely positive of number three. The man had shown zero interest in her dogs, and that spoke of a cold, unfeeling heart.
Kelsey had tried convincing her father she was too busy to help Ian, but her reasoning had been brushed off as easily as the death glare she’d given him. That was no surprise. Kelsey’s glare had a tendency to make people, particularly male people, want to pat her on the head and tell her how cute she was. Cherubic, even. Being taken seriously was hard when you were short. Add in her blond curls and blue eyes and it was damn near impossible. Her twin brother, Kevin, who shared her general appearance, at least had the advantage of being male. No one thought Kevin was cute when he scowled at them.
And no question, her father wouldn’t have volunteered Kevin to do unpaid labor. That was the sort of BS demanded only of women. Her father hadn’t cared one bit that Kelsey had deadlines to meet and a house she was renovating. Making Ian happy had been more important to him.
“You know I’m right,” Kelsey said as she pointed out this last incontrovertible fact.
Josh had the good sense not to argue, which was why he was her favorite cousin. “You’re probably right, yes. But try not to be so negative. Ian doesn’t know your situation. It’s not his fault.”
So that was who the nagging Be nice voice in her head sounded like. She’d been telling it to shut up since her father had dropped this bomb on her yesterday, and Kelsey turned the full force of her glare on her cousin. It was a combination of displeased, dismissive, and disgusted that on another face might have been lethal. “Excuse me?”
Like her father had, Josh ignored the glare. Freaking men.
They had embarked on their semi-regular afternoon ritual, walking their combined six huskies around the park in downtown Helen. Kelsey had given Josh his three dogs when he moved here a couple of years ago, and they mingled with hers-Romeo, Juliet, and Puck-as they made a circuit around the park’s perimeter.
What a difference a few weeks made. Helen hadn’t entirely shut down for the winter yet, but the number of tourists had so rapidly declined, it was like someone had shut off a spigot. The park, just a couple of weeks ago, had been a maze to navigate with six dogs, but now it was an easy stroll. That was good, because the chillier weather made Kelsey want to keep a faster pace even as she delighted in the scent of the wet grass and salty bay water. Anything smelled better than the drywall compound she’d been inhaling all morning.
Well, almost anything. She was supposed to meet with Ian at his brewery in an hour, and Kelsey assumed the place would smell like beer. She hated beer. Even if she did have experience writing marketing materials, which she most certainly did not, she still would be the worst person in the world to help Ian.
“I’m not saying it was cool of your father to volunteer you,” Josh said as he attempted to detangle a couple of leashes. “But how long can it take you to write some stuff for the brewery’s website?”
“It’s not only the website. It’s also press releases, and a puff piece for the local paper. Maybe even a longer article to submit to some travel zines.”
“And that.” Josh winced, and Kelsey hoped it was dawning on him why she was being so negative.
Lies-spinning them for a living was called fiction. Living them was turning out to be a pain in the ass. Everyone in town, including Josh, believed Kelsey was a freelance writer, and they all had their own ideas as to what that meant. She’d never bothered to correct them, since it hadn’t mattered. Until now.
Kelsey hadn’t the faintest clue what the website work might entail, but she did have an idea how much time it took to write for the Helen Weekly Herald, because she did it on occasion. It helped keep her cover and paid for the occasional new doggie toy, but she hated it. The only thing Kelsey enjoyed writing was novels. Steamy paranormal romance novels about a pack of husky shifters living in the Alaskan bush, to be 100 percent precise, because romance readers knew exactly what sort of stories they wanted, and Kelsey aimed to provide them for the ones who liked hers. It wasn’t what she’d planned to do with her life, but she enjoyed it, was apparently good at it, and had gotten extremely lucky to be able to support herself with it.
And there was no way in hell she could tell anyone in Helen about it. Thank goodness for pen names.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

It’s up to a trio of adorable rescue huskies to make two lonely hearts in a coastal Alaskan town realize that true love is worth too much to turn tail and run.

Glaciers have nothing on Kelsey Porter when she decides to freeze someone out. After getting burned once, she’s not about to let it happen again. And right now all that icy contempt is focused on one annoyingly attractive and entitled interloper: Ian Roth. Not only is he looking to take advantage of her quaint, coastal community, tainting the small-town charm of Helen, Alaska, but he has committed the one crime she can never forgive–he doesn’t like her dogs.

Unlike what Kelsey believes, Ian loves Helen’s charms as much as she does. That’s partly why he’s determined to open a brewery there, and he’s not about to let anything or anyone stop his dream from coming true. But he didn’t count on the beautiful, prickly woman getting under his skin. Or having to be within hand-biting proximity of her three huge huskies.

When Kelsey’s family conscripts her into helping Ian get his brewery off the ground, she finds herself caught between a rock and a hard . . . muscular . . . man who has a fear of dogs. But the longer they work together, the more she can feel herself begin to thaw. Now she’ll have to choose: let sleeping dogs lie to protect her heart, or mush head-on toward love.

Book Links: Amazon |
 
 

Meet the Author:

Growing up, Alanna Martin wanted to be an astronaut, a doctor, and an actor–possibly all at once. After nine years of studying psychology, she somehow became a writer instead. This turned out to be the best career choice of all because she can work in her pajamas while drinking wine. She firmly believes in the power of fluffy books, long walks in the woods, and that there’s no such thing as too much coffee.
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